New Book Excerpt: DORM RATS, A Neighborlee, Ohio book

The building where the investigative society met was reputed to be haunted. Harry and I speculated for a short time that our folks were going to be asked to determine if it really was haunted, or if something else explained the odd noises and lights and visions that people experienced. I was of the opinion that it might just turn out to be another "weak place" in the fabric of space and time, something like what the whole town of Neighborlee protected. I wanted to wander the village and determine if this village had their local equivalent of Divine's Emporium and Angela. It made sense to me that other places in the world needed something and someone to reinforce the weak spots and channel all the magic and weirdness for profitable use. The person and the shop would protect the village from the rest of the world, and the rest of the world from the village.

Harry liked my theory, and we had an enjoyable two hours going about on scooters provided by our host at the little guest house/hotel where we were staying. Then we had to get down to the haunted building to meet up with everyone for lunch. We got there about five minutes early. We could look down the street that ran straight through the village to the other end, where the bookstore was, and see the people coming out the front door.

A couple was sitting on a bench in front of the building. This was our introduction to Jake and Emma Crowder. They were researchers like Mum and Pop. And Harry's parents. I never made the connection until years later. Emma and Jake were midway between Mum and Pop and Harry's parents, meaning they did a lot more "unofficial" government-type investigations than our folks did, but they didn't get into trouble and danger to the point of threatening their lives, like Harry's birth parents did. At least, not at the time we met them.